Minister welcomes new Chief Digital Information Officer
Date published:
The Health Minster has announced the appointment of Dr Paul Rice as Chief Digital Information Officer (CDIO) in the Department of Health (DoH).
With over 25 years of experience in the NHS, Dr Rice took up post at the start of June and is responsible for leading the continuation of progress towards digitisation of health and care digital systems in Northern Ireland. He will also be the Senior Information Risk Officer (SIRO) for DoH, and the leader of Digital Health and Care Northern Ireland (DHCNI).
Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said: “I am very pleased to welcome Dr Paul Rice as our new CDIO. Paul brings a wealth of experience in digital transformation across health and social care, including the successful delivery of major national NHS programmes.
“His leadership in implementing hospital electronic patient records, enhancing primary care workflows, and deploying innovative technologies to support clinical, operational and administrative staff will be an invaluable asset to the role. I look forward to working closely with him.”
Most recently, Dr Rice held the CDIO position at both Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Airedale NHS Foundation Trust in West Yorkshire. Immediately prior to this he was the Regional Director of Digital Transformation for NHS England and Improvement in the Northeast and Yorkshire.
Dr Paul Rice said: “I am delighted to take on the role of the DoH’s CDIO at such a vital time. The introduction of encompass across the five geographically defined Health and Social Care Trusts has given us a unique opportunity to lead the way in innovation and deliver genuinely digitally enabled health and social care.
“I am very optimistic, building on this platform, that we will improve the working life of colleagues and positively impact outcomes for patients. Access to high quality actionable data will inform service planning reflective of need. We can be at the forefront of life sciences research, and digital and data supported transformation.
“Having worked in various roles across the NHS in England, I expect to bring some of that experience and insights from across the globe to this role, continuing to build on the great work already started.”
Notes to editors:
- Dr Paul Rice previously held the same portfolio at board level in Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Airedale NHS Foundation Trust in West Yorkshire. Paul had previously been the Regional Director of Digital Transformation for NHS England and Improvement in the Northeast and Yorkshire. He has been the senior responsible owner for substantial national digital transformation programmes in the NHS, delivering hospital electronic patient records, technologies to support nurses’ release time to care, Primary Care clinical and operational workflow innovations and change programmes in maternal and child health.
- Paul holds a first class BA joint honours degree in Law and Accounting (Manchester), a Masters degree in Informatics Leadership (Imperial) and a Doctorate in Medical Law and Bioethics (Manchester). He is also a graduate of the Said Business School (Oxford), where he completed the Major Projects Leadership Academy Cabinet Office Executive Programme, and a Fellow of the British Computing Society. Paul was a trustee of Yorkshire Cancer Research and remains a volunteer fundraiser with Macmillan Cancer Support.
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